Cooktop appliances generally include burners for heating, for example, food items. Gas cooktop appliances ignite gaseous fuel, such as propane or natural gas, to produce such heat. A cooking utensil, such as a pot or pan, containing, for example, a foot item, is placed on the burner for heating. Typical burners for cooktop appliances have generally circular shapes. Recently, however, elongated burners have been utilized to heat large or elongated containers, such as griddles. Many known elongated burners have oval-like shapes, with for example opposing long straight sides and opposing short curved sides.
Due to customer concerns regarding the utility of such elongated burners, attempts have been made to increase the versatility of such burners. In one arrangement, the burner was manufactured such that various portions of the elongated burner could be individually used. However, controls for this arrangement were discovered to be difficult to manipulate, and none of the individual portions were designed for use with circular cooking utensils.
In another arrangement, a cooking utensil was placed in the center of the elongated burner, and either burner could be utilized depending on the application. However, difficulties with this design have presented themselves. For example, such design does not provide sufficient secondary air to the circular burner. Further, users of such design have experienced excess heat generation issues, with the overall temperature from the circular burner and elongated burner being beyond that temperatures that can be withstood by, for example, non-stick coatings of certain containers.
Accordingly, improved burners and operating methods for cooktop appliances are desired in the art. In particular, methods and burner assemblies which allow, for example, griddle use while preventing excess heat generation issues and decreasing air supply issues would be advantageous.